status source Weidhase, Michael; Bleidorn, Christoph; Simon, Carol A. (2016). On the taxonomy and phylogeny of Ctenodrilus (Annelida: Cirratulidae) with a first report from South Africa. Marine Biodiversity. 46(1): 243-252., available online athttp://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12526-015-0355-3[details]

taxonomy source Petersen, M. E.; George, J. D. (1991). A new species of Raricirrus from northern Europe, with notes on its biology and a discussion of the affinities of the genus (Polychaeta: Ctenodrilidae). Ophelia, supplement 5 (Systematics, Biology and Morpholology of World Polychaeta). 185-208. [details]

Classification The independence of Ctenodrilidae from Cirratulidae is uncertain, compounded by the possibility of misidentification of cirratulid juveniles as ctenodrilids. Taxonomists Hartmann-Schröder, 1996 & recently Magalhães et al (2011) treat them as distinct, as does Salazar-Vallejo et al. (2008) in a morphological analysis, but at least some molecular work places them in cirratulids (e.g., Rousset et al. 2007). Weidhase et al (2015) further report that Raricirrus and Ctenodrilus species are Cirratulidae, thus probably Ctenodrilidae is no longer required as a taxon. They conclude "we assume that all former Ctenodrilidae are progenetic members of the Cirratulidae and the family Ctenodrilidae needs to be revised and probably abandoned." [details]